1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for positioning wire pairs of a second communication cable for electrical connection of the wires to a modular connector having a first connected cable.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Communication cables commonly carry multiple pairs of wires. Such cables with multiple wire pairs require sorting of the pairs before attachment to electrical connectors. For example, telephone cables normally include 25, 50 or 100 pairs of wires, which are color-coded. Before attaching the pairs to an appropriate modular connector, a jig is used to separate the wire pairs and also to split the wires of each pair. It is well known in the prior art to place a modular connector on a bed with an attached comb. The wire pairs are separated and placed in individual wire guides in the comb. The pairs are thereby held in place for attachment of electrical connector. Now that so much telephone cable is in place, addition of cables is more common than laying of new cable. This means a second cable of wire pairs is attached to a side of a modular connector which already carries a first cable.
Since these splices are made in cables in place in the field, large shop devices are not acceptable. In order to be usable, the splicing head must be easily portable and usable by a lone worker.
A search on the present invention located the following United States patents:
______________________________________ Inventor U.S. Pat. No. Issue Date ______________________________________ Enright et al. 3,713,214 1/30/73 Johnston 3,800,390 4/2/74 Tucci 3,866,296 2/18/75 Cea et al. 3,872,567 3/25/75 McKee 3,965,558 6/29/76 ______________________________________
U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,214 to Enright et al discloses an apparatus for splicing together wires from two communication cables. A comb is used to separate the wires before splicing. A connector is used to splice the pairs of the two cables. The disclosure does not discuss adding an additional cable to one side of the splice.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,558 to McKee shows a large shop apparatus for connecting wires of cables to a particular type of solderless connector. This disclosure does not discuss connecting an additional cable to one side of the connector.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,872,567 to Cea et al discloses an apparatus for separating color-coded wires into pairs and sets of pairs using wire jigs which can then be moved to a splicing head.
Application No. 3,800,390 to Johnston discloses apparatus for separating wire pairs of the cable using jigs which can be moved to a connecting device for connecting the conductors to the terminals. Only one cable is connected to each side of each connector.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,296 to Tucci discloses a connector and a jig plate for mounting the connector. The connector is designed to connect the ends of wire pairs of a second cable to an intermediate position on a first cable of wire pairs.
None of the prior art devices is designed for adding a second cable to the same connector as a first cable on a module connector. What is needed is a device for neatly separating wires of the second cable, without removing the first cable from the modular connector.